KOHAT: The district administration demolished 35 shops and a marriage hall during the ongoing anti-encroachment drive on Rawalpindi road here on Friday.

The operation was led by deputy commissioner Kamran Afridi. He was accompanied by assistant commissioner Ali Asghar and a contingent of police that also resorted to baton charge of the protesting shopkeepers. Heavy machinery was used in the operation to bring down shops constructed on the state land.

All Petrol Pump Owners Association, meanwhile, held a press conference following the decision of the administration to uproot a CNG station.

Mr Asghar told Dawn that all the shops and a CNG station were demolished because they had been constructed on a nullah which was a property of the district government.

Several people were also injured during the baton charge, as the staff of tehsil municipal administration threw out groceries from the shops. The affected people had not vacated the shops despite prior notices.

KILLED: Two people were killed and 12 others, including students of the Kohat University of Science and Technology, injured in a head on collision between a trailer and coaster on the Indus highway here on Friday.

An employee of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Kohat, Javed Iqbal, and Kamran Khan, a resident of Sarai Naurang, died on the spot. The injured were taken to the combined military hospital and KDA divisional headquarter hospital where condition of some of the injured was said to critical.

Sources said that condition of two students Farmanullah and Zaheer and that of Waseemullah, Luqman and Asif was serious.

The police said that the accident occurred due to speeding in which Lakki Marwat-bound coaster and an incoming trailer hit each other. Driver of the coaster was also injured in the accident.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2015

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